The inventive concepts disclosed herein relate generally to the field of airborne navigation systems, and more particularly to airborne navigation systems for optimizing flight plans based on internet connectivity.
Aircraft typically follow an organized flight plan between an origin and a destination. Various factors inform the creation and adjustment of a flight plan for an aircraft, including threat avoidance, fuel consumption, aircraft performance parameters, time and distance to a destination, a load carried by the aircraft, political boundaries, turbulence, and other weather conditions. Aircraft may typically include communication systems for providing communication services to the passengers and crew, such as internet connectivity. Some travelers require or desire continuous internet connectivity throughout a flight or internet connectivity at a specific time during a flight, such as for attending meetings or engaging in other business activities. However, internet connectivity can be difficult to maintain on an aircraft due to the scarcity of stable and/or continuous connections to remote data sources that provide internet connectivity.
A need exists for a navigation system linked to a communications system of an aircraft to provide flight planning capabilities for optimizing internet connectivity during a flight. A further need exists for adjusting flight plans enroute for optimizing internet connectivity based on a desired connectivity parameter, such as a minimum data transfer rate or maintaining an internet connection during a specified time period.